Challenge
Challenging is one word to describe what is going on at the moment. I can think of a lot of other words but let’s go for challenging.
You see the thing with a challenge, is it inspires action. According to Google, to challenge is to ‘make demands on; prove testing to.’ It’s a wave we need to ride. It’s simply, part of the course.
Now this might feel like I’m underplaying a crisis but it’s become part of the course and therefore something that we need to navigate. As leaders, we need to see the opportunity in the challenge. We need to challenge ourselves to be the best we can be and the we need to challenge our team to pull together and drive forward more than they ever have before.
Seeing the opportunity
The first thought you had when COVID-19 reared it’s head was probably not, oooh, what a great opportunity…! That’s fair enough, but now might be the time to think that.
We can’t control the pandemic but what we can control is how we think about it. If we think, oooh, what a great opportunity, it might give us that little boost that we need to try to see where we can innovate.
So first we need to put things into perspective then we need to innovate and then the last thing we need is a lot of determination.
Challenge ourselves
As a leader, we have a team looking up to us for direction, but we also have a team looking up to us to for inspiration.
That can be a little intimidating so we need to have a little faith. A little faith that we are in the role for a reason and that we can rise to this challenge.
So again, it’s another situation where perspective is needed. You are going to do your best and there is no time for comparisons. Think about if you were being interviewed on the other side of this challenge by The Times because of your impressive leadership skills. What would you be saying in that interview? What advice would you be giving other inspiring leaders who were coming into this situation? Use that advice now.
Challenge our team
This is the time for your team to innovate but sometimes they need to be given permission to. We looked at culture earlier in this series and this is when your culture will really show.
Have you created the type of environment that people are comfortable with pushing themselves into new directions or are they scared of the consequences of failure? Ensure your team know that it’s OK to rise to the challenge and try new things.
Inspire them to determination.
Once you’ve managed to do this, then you can continue navigating to move forward through the 7Cs.
Join us each week as we are navigating the 7Cs of Crisis, next week we will be looking at Compassion.
